| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Interestingly enough, when I was young I thought of hobgoblins as being bigger, nastier goblins because of The Hobbit. There's a bit where Gandalf refers to "goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs of the worst description." In the radio adaption the emphasis the actor playing Gandalf puts on the word "hobgoblins" always made it seem dire and more threatening.While I can't speak for SilvercatMoonpaw, I will say that when I was a little kid, I thought hobgoblins were a cross between goblins and hobbits. Which could go either way, nicenesswise-speaking.Hobgoblin is also not great because it makes them sound like nice goblins for some reason.
Really? Can you explain how?
I have been told that Scotland (or maybe it was Ireland, I get confused on which stories came from where) had some legends where the Hobgoblins were the 'purified' form of the evil goblins. iirc they cleaned and helped out cooking simple things in country kitchens out when no one was around. Kinda like specialized Brownies.
However, the same land had other legends that were apparently from a slightly different time period (historically speaking) wherein the Hobgoblins were the even more eviler version of the already evil goblins. The goblins just liked to torment and bother people. The hobgoblins actually tortured people to death.
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
And then there are creatures that I don't like, *or* their names.
Carbuncles. And Gazebos. Anything named after an object, really, that isn't an object.
Never was too fond of the name 'pseudo-dragon,' either, for that matter. 'House drake' sounds more fantasy, to my ear.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
We accept that all pronunciations are true and accurate at our table. What is one Galt's "Bull-Lay" might be an Andoran's "Bullet."
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Really? Can you explain how?Hobgoblin is also not great because it makes them sound like nice goblins for some reason.
Can't speak for SilvercatMoonpaw, but to me 'hobgoblin' sometimes makes me reminisce about the film Labyrinth with David Bowie where the rather loveable and loony character Hoggle is a hobgoblin.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Can't speak for SilvercatMoonpaw, but to me 'hobgoblin' sometimes makes me reminisce about the film Labyrinth with David Bowie where the rather loveable and loony character Hoggle is a hobgoblin.Really? Can you explain how?Hobgoblin is also not great because it makes them sound like nice goblins for some reason.
I thought he was referred to as dwarf. ("the dwarf is taking her to the beginning of the labyrinth...")
| 7 people marked this as a favorite. |
Slaad's. I can't help but call 'em salads...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I thought he was referred to as dwarf. ("the dwarf is taking her to the beginning of the labyrinth...")Can't speak for SilvercatMoonpaw, but to me 'hobgoblin' sometimes makes me reminisce about the film Labyrinth with David Bowie where the rather loveable and loony character Hoggle is a hobgoblin.Really? Can you explain how?Hobgoblin is also not great because it makes them sound like nice goblins for some reason.
Huh, maybe my mind has twisted things.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Slaad's. I can't help but call 'em salads...
Uh what? I thought Slaadi were definitely Wankers of the Coast property and not part of the stuff allowed PF? I dearly love them, they are a buncha monsters I wish I could find more use for, but demons and devils are easier to drag out of their home planes, and it's hard to drag adventurers into limbo, unless some of them are already githzerai (another non pf bit of IP) ...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I thought Slaadi were definitely Wankers of the Coast property and not part of the stuff allowed PF?
LOL They might be. I don't think the the question about 'bad monster names' was limited to pathfinder though. ;)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Like the Eye King, a mass of eyeball stalks that fire ray attacks and a central eye that emits a cone?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I thought Slaadi were definitely Wankers of the Coast property and not part of the stuff allowed PF?LOL They might be. I don't think the the question about 'bad monster names' was limited to pathfinder though. ;)
I think "Proteans" are the PF equivalent of Slaad.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I think "Proteans" are the PF equivalent of Slaad.I thought Slaadi were definitely Wankers of the Coast property and not part of the stuff allowed PF?LOL They might be. I don't think the the question about 'bad monster names' was limited to pathfinder though. ;)
That might of been the idea but they don't have the same feel, IMO, to Salads. ;)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Slaad's. I can't help but call 'em salads...
Hey, hey, hey now! No slaad-shaming!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"Welcome to Norgorber, Home of the Norgorburger"
Mmmm... Double Norgorburger with bacon, cheese and onion rings and a large shake... It's almost as good as big belly burger...
| 9 people marked this as a favorite. |
From way back:
Suppose you have an awakened chicken sorcereress attacked by a red slaad. The resulting green slaad is then marooned on a dune-covered isle, where she becomes a Queen of the Wild who dabbles in witchcraft. And thus you have.... a chicken slaad sand witch
|
|
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
I hate the name Norgorber (pronounced NOR-gore-ber)... I feel like it's baby talk.
also sounds like Golarion fast food...
"Welcome to Norgorber, Home of the Norgorburger"
Ah, deity names. Would you like to keep that Norgorburger fresh, try this Saran-wrap! Eat too much and you might suffer Erastil Dysfunction!
And then there's Wee Jas. Have you met her brother Hugh?
What's this about My-leaky? Shake it off, or tap it or something.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm put off a bit by technical, scientific terms being used for dinasaurs and megafauna.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm put off a bit by technical, scientific terms being used for dinasaurs and megafauna.
On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, I kind of hated when Eberron (IIRC) tried to come up with names for them like clawfoots, glidewings and swordtooth titans.
Given that, in the Realms and Golarion, dinosaurs tend to be associated with the faux-African nations, them having a 'class name' like Mokole, or something, could make some sense, but since Bestiaries are setting-neutral, for the most part, that wouldn't fly there anyway. I guess using real-world names is the best possible choice, since at least the reader knows what to call them.
It's not like we have any idea what dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, or fantasy-Humans who speak Taldan or Chelaxian or Shoanti call dogs, cats or horses, anyway, so not knowing what the people of the game-world call ankylosaurs is not really any different...
Probably 'dire turtles' or something. :)
Velocirator - dire chicken
Deinonychus - giant dire chicken
Allosaurus - run! no, seriously, run for your lives!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I like dire chicken...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm put off a bit by technical, scientific terms being used for dinasaurs and megafauna.On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, I kind of hated when Eberron (IIRC) tried to come up with names for them like clawfoots, glidewings and swordtooth titans.
Given that, in the Realms and Golarion, dinosaurs tend to be associated with the faux-African nations, them having a 'class name' like Mokole, or something, could make some sense, but since Bestiaries are setting-neutral, for the most part, that wouldn't fly there anyway. I guess using real-world names is the best possible choice, since at least the reader knows what to call them.
It's not like we have any idea what dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, or fantasy-Humans who speak Taldan or Chelaxian or Shoanti call dogs, cats or horses, anyway, so not knowing what the people of the game-world call ankylosaurs is not really any different...
Probably 'dire turtles' or something. :)
Velocirator - dire chicken
Deinonychus - giant dire chicken
Allosaurus - run! no, seriously, run for your lives!
Spinosaurus - the death of a trilogy.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm put off a bit by technical, scientific terms being used for dinasaurs and megafauna.On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, I kind of hated when Eberron (IIRC) tried to come up with names for them like clawfoots, glidewings and swordtooth titans.
Given that, in the Realms and Golarion, dinosaurs tend to be associated with the faux-African nations, them having a 'class name' like Mokole, or something, could make some sense, but since Bestiaries are setting-neutral, for the most part, that wouldn't fly there anyway. I guess using real-world names is the best possible choice, since at least the reader knows what to call them.
It's not like we have any idea what dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, or fantasy-Humans who speak Taldan or Chelaxian or Shoanti call dogs, cats or horses, anyway, so not knowing what the people of the game-world call ankylosaurs is not really any different...
Probably 'dire turtles' or something. :)
Velocirator - dire chicken
Deinonychus - giant dire chicken
Allosaurus - run! no, seriously, run for your lives!
Tyrannosaurus - King Dire Chicken.
I actually liked the 4e way of naming dinosaurs. Namely, the giant sauropods got called behemoths and some of the carnivores were repurposed as drakes.
|
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So I don't really like these types of threads since they just become complaint threads.
Especially since most people don't even post about monsters they love, they just post about the name they hate :D
But yeah, I agree with idea that its insulting to see people think name sounds stupid just because its not English name :P
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I agree with idea that its insulting to see people think name sounds stupid just because its not English name :P
Generally not 'just' because its non-English.
Some Inuit mythological creature names sound a bit comic to native English speakers, like the Qalupalik. Others don't, like the Akhlut or Amarok.
Is that really a problem? If a non-English speaker thought "hobgoblin" was a hilarious word, I don't think I'd feel insulted.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm not sure there's much of a phonetic difference between ghul and ghoul
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Svirfneblin - for god's sake, buy a vowel!They already bought three, man...
I'd like to buy An A
Savirafanebalin... yeah no that didn't help.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The svirfneblin is hard to read, probably because of the unfamiliar consonant combinations. If it was written as svirf-neblin that would be easier to parse (and with the same consonant/vowel ratio as a goblin shark).
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Daemons - Love the soul-devouring NE outsiders, but the name's pronounced the same as Demon.
See also the Ghul, an undead Genie, but how do you pronounce it any differently from the Ghoul, an undead humanoid?
I've always pronounced Daemon with a long "a", kind of like Day-Mon. And Demon with a long "e", Dee-Mon. Is that not correct?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm not sure there's much of a phonetic difference between ghul and ghoul
"Ghoul" is the English borrowing of the Arabic word. "Ghul" is a closer transliteration. So when I say 'ghul' I use the ghayn letter pronounciation. Here's a video explaining how to pronounce it.
DISCLAIMER: The video represents one version of the ideal native-speaker sound. My own Arabic pronunciation is terrible.
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Velocirator - dire chicken
Deinonychus - giant dire chicken
Allosaurus - run! no, seriously, run for your lives!
This has nothing to do with names, but I love the fact that Allosaurus was as distant in time from Tyrannosaurus as we are.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I really like the Sahkil. They genuinely wreak of evil. However, their name sounds kind of like a villain exasperatedly ordering his minions to kill the heroes.
*Sighs* "Kill."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've always pronounced Daemon with a long "a", kind of like Day-Mon. And Demon with a long "e", Dee-Mon. Is that not correct?Daemons - Love the soul-devouring NE outsiders, but the name's pronounced the same as Demon.
See also the Ghul, an undead Genie, but how do you pronounce it any differently from the Ghoul, an undead humanoid?
I've heard that, too, but I thought the pronunciation was 'dah-mon' (similar to 'dark').
EDIT:
I really like the Sahkil. They genuinely wreak of evil. However, their name sounds kind of like a villain exasperatedly ordering his minions to kill the heroes.
*Sighs* "Kill."
"Reek! Rhymes with leek!"
SCNR
|
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Huh. I wonder if they could reverse-translate. Like the German version would have 'Geist' for the 'ghost' bestiary entry, but then put 'Ghost' for the 'geist' bestiary entry...
When I was part of the translation team for the Pathfinder products things like that were often the cause of extended discussions during our weekly Skype meetings.
1. We had to be aware of older translations because we were expected to apply those so as not to confuse the readers that were used to it.
2. We tried to avoid term doublettes (and you can easily see how difficult that can get if you have both "Ghosts" and "Geists", for example)
3. We tried to avoid translating things with terms that might be a better fit for things that had yet to be included in the Pathfinder universe.
Add to that that we had team members from different parts of Germany (and Austria), which makes sometimes for a very different kind of vocabulary, and things could get very hilarious during those meetings.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Huh. I wonder if they could reverse-translate. Like the German version would have 'Geist' for the 'ghost' bestiary entry, but then put 'Ghost' for the 'geist' bestiary entry...When I was part of the translation team for the Pathfinder products...
...Add to that that we had team members from different parts of Germany (and Austria), which makes sometimes for a very different kind of vocabulary, and things could get very hilarious during those meetings.
I bet! I used to have to worry about that kind of thing for work all the time. And it only gets more wacky when machine translation gets involved. Trying to figure out which grammatical construction would offend the fewest languages when we plugged it into translation software gave me no end of headaches... :)
By the end of every project, the whole team was so punchy from going over the words, that I'm pretty sure none of us was speaking any known language--it had all become just noises and symbols. This may explain why comprehend languages is one of my favorite fantasies...
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I am always annoyed by Paizo's calling a winged horse a Pegasus. Pegasus was the name of the winged horse ridden by Perseus. Using "Pegasi" as the plural annoys me even more. Even if there were more than one winged horse, Pegasus is a Greek word, and the "-us singular/ -i plural" construction is Latin. Saying that the plural of Pegasus is Pegasi is like saying the plural of Zeus is Zei.
You're right that "Pegasus" was the name of an individual winged horse in the original myth, but D&D/Pathfinder is rife with taking mythical creatures that were single individuals or existed in very limited numbers, and making species out of them.
My knowledge of Latin and Greek is pretty small, so I might very well have this wrong, but I suppose that the original Greek name would've been something like "Pegasos", "Pegasus" is a latinized form, so maybe "pegasi" isn't such a bad plural form of "pegasus".
My daughter calls me "a dirty prescriptivist" for such rants.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
but wouldn't 'dah-mon' be spelled "Damon"?
Nobody tell Matt...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Add to that that we had team members from different parts of Germany (and Austria), which makes sometimes for a very different kind of vocabulary, and things could get very hilarious during those meetings.
Now I'm curious. Can you provide examples? anecdotes? I always love stories about the Deutsch-Österreichische Freundschaft